Word Origin & History

cretin 1779, from Fr. Alpine dialect crestin, "a dwarfed and deformed idiot" of a type formerly found in families in the Alpine lands, a condition caused by a congenital deficiency of thyroid hormones, from V.L. *christianus "a Christian," a generic term for "anyone," but often with a sense of "poor fellow." Related: Cretinism (1801).

Example Sentences for cretin

Something of the goître and cretin influence seems to settle on my spirits sometimes, on the lower ground.

On the Rigi his musings on the magnificence of the view are checked by the presence of a cretin.

It is very commonly accompanied by idiocy; and, in fact, the Cretin is one of the most distressing objects that can be seen.

Only twelve kinds of a cretin would have gone on when faced with anything like this.

The cretin, whose eyes caught a glimpse of the cake, laughed, and began to try to reach out her hand to take it.

Of course, many people have goitre who are not cretins, but there is no cretin who has not goitre.

“It was rather a chouse to shoot a cretin, though,” said another, in chaff.

Every crank's whim, every cretin's philosophy, is fired at him first of all.

The male criminal in this respect resembles the epileptic, and especially the cretin, in whom grey hair is seldom seen.

The poetical whim of Cretin, a French poet, brought into fashion punning or equivocal rhymes.